WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) is on his way — just barely — to being the first Native person in President Donald Trump’s cabinet following a testy confirmation hearing in which tribal issues were only briefly discussed.

As the first Native person to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Mullin vowed to work with Indian Country. At the hearing on Wednesday, he said he would look at multiple ways to protect the U.S. border when it comes to tribal lands.

“I respect tribal sovereignty,” Mullin, who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

“We still have a job to secure the border but we will work with tribal nations because there’s other ways to have physical barriers where you can have technology there too,” Mullin told Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), who was the only committee member who asked about Indian Country at the closely-watched hearing.

“And I don’t think anybody would complain about that,” Mullin said of alternative ways to protect the border.

“I respect tribal sovereignty. We will work with tribal nations”: Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) endorses alternative methods-including technology-along the US border, rather than imposing physical walls and barriers on tribal lands without tribal consent. #TribalConsultation pic.twitter.com/Vhy3KkA72P

— indianz.com (@indianz) March 18, 2026

Mullin did not elaborate on how technology could be used in place of, or in addition to, physical barriers that tribes in Arizona have strongly opposed. But his statement marked a shift in thinking from Trump’s strong insistence on building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico despite a lack of consent in Indian Country.

“When it comes to building some of these installations on the border, there has been very, very little to no tribal consultation, especially with some of our border tribes,” Gallego observed.

“There’s a border wall that is going through tribal land that is in very sacred land, that is not crossed and [not] used significantly by human smugglers,” Gallego added. “You know, it’s important that DHS actually speak to these communities.”

“They actually have programs that they do where they actually are working with DHS and local law enforcement to stop illegal smuggling,” Gallego said.

The Tohono O’odham Nation, whose reservation in Arizona shares a border with Mexico, has long opposed a wall through its homelands. Earlier this week on Capitol Hill, Chairman Verlon Jose said his tribe spends more than $3 million a year on security and could use the support of the federal government to boost law enforcement and public safety efforts.

“Federal funding is desperately needed to address our unique public safety challenges,” Jose told the House Committee on Appropriations at an unrelated hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

“The nation shares a 62-mile border with Mexico, and we work closely with border patrol and other law enforcement agencies,” Jose said of his tribe’s 2.8 million-acre reservation. “We spend our own funds to assist with border security efforts.”

“We would appreciate more federal financial resources to support our efforts,” Jose testified.

The witness table was empty as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) opened Markwayne Mullin's confirmation hearing.

"I’m assuming we’ll commence when he arrives," Paul said. "I think he's in the hall doing media."

Mullin, nominee to be Secretary of Homeland Security, wasn't far away. pic.twitter.com/oIKd0SlxMn

— indianz.com (@indianz) March 18, 2026

Mullin’s comments about tribes and the border came toward the end of his confirmation hearing, which opened on Wednesday morning with an unusual sight. When Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), the Republican chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, started the proceeding, the witness table was visibly empty.

“I’m assuming we’ll commence when he arrives,” Paul said. “I think he’s in the hall doing media.”

Indeed, Mullin wasn’t far away and he soon took a seat in the committee room. That’s when Paul called him a liar and said he was unfit to lead a massive and sprawling federal agency because of “anger issues.”

More specifically, Paul said Mullin justified a physical attack in which Paul suffered serious injuries during an incident at his home in Kentucky in 2017. He also accused Mullin of misrepresenting his positions on immigration issues this year and showed video of the lawmaker threatening to fight a witness at a public hearing in 2023.

“You told the media that I was a ‘freaking snake’ and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted,” Paul said in his opening statement.

“You got a chance today,” Paul added. “You can either continue to lie or you can correct the record.”

After being sworn in, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) responds to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky).

“It seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us,” Mullin says.

He adds: “For you to say I’m a liar that's not accurate.”

No apology offered for remarks about Paul. pic.twitter.com/omsqMFtwLk

— indianz.com (@indianz) March 18, 2026

Mullin did not embrace the offer. He instead lashed out at Paul, accusing his Republican colleague of not being loyal enough to the GOP.

“It seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us,” Mullin told Paul.

Mullin also rejected Paul’s assertion that he had justified the 2017 attack, which resulted in criminal charges against the assailant.

“As far as me saying that I invoke violence, I don’t think anybody should be hit by surprise,” Mullin said. “I don’t like that.”

“So for you to say, am a liar, sir, that’s not accurate,” Mullin added.

The exchange wasn’t the only heated rivalry of the hearing. Upon questioning by Democrats, Mullin admitted he had been “wrong” in his comments about the killings of two Americans — Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Nicole Macklin Good — by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minnesota. ICE is part of DHS.

“I shouldn’t have said that. As Secretary, I wouldn’t,” Mullin said about Pretti, whom he had called a “deranged individual.”

But just like his refusal to concede ground to Paul, Mullin said he wouldn’t apologize for being wrong about Pretti, who worked as a nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs before he was shot to death by ICE agents on January 24.

“I just said I regret those statements,” Mullin offered.

“I shouldn’t have said that. As Secretary, I wouldn’t”: Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) admits being "wrong" for comments about killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti by #ICE agents in Minnesota.

Asked if he would apologize to Pretti's family: “I just said I regret those statements.” pic.twitter.com/AKTvXBqsS4

— indianz.com (@indianz) March 18, 2026

And later, Mullin said he misspoke about the shooting of Good by ICE agents on January 7. Still, he declined an offer to apologize for the way he justified the death of the mother of three, instead insisting that “investigation” was underway into the incident.

However, Mullin retreated when asked whether anyone at the local, state or federal level was actually investigating Good’s death.

“Don’t you think there should be an investigation?” asked Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut).

“My understanding is there, that there is,” Mullin replied. “I will find out, once — if I’m able to get confirmed.”

Mullin also faced intense, yet curious, questions about a mysterious trip he took overseas in 2016, when he was serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. He repeatedly refused to provide details about his “mission” — asserting it was “classified” and that he undertook it on “official” business of the U.S. government.

“I was not required to disclose this,” said Mullin, who admitted he was “getting upset” when asked why he did not tell the committee about the trip, or its purpose.

Nomination hearing ends as Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) agrees to discuss trip he says is classified. He tried to dictate who could attend #SCIF but relented after pushback from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Chair of Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee. pic.twitter.com/4zEie9O1Yp

— indianz.com (@indianz) March 18, 2026

As the hearing came to a close, Mullin relented and agreed to talk about the trip during a private meeting with committee members and staff in a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, at the U.S. Capitol. While still sitting at the witness table, he tried to dictate who could participate but faced immediate pushback from Paul.

“Too many things are siloed and it just looks like resistance that you don’t want everything to come out,” Paul told Mullin, who was forced to abandon his demands.

Despite the doubts voiced throughout the hearing, Paul convened a previously-scheduled business meeting of the committee on Thursday to consider Mullin’s nomination. While he did not provide substantial remarks at the short meeting, which lasted about 3 minutes, he joined six Democrats in opposing Mullin to be Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

“The department and the American people deserve a leader who is steady and proven under pressure, not just someone better than the very low bar set by his predecessor,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee, said in comparing Mullin to former Secretary Kristi Noem, who was ousted from the position by President Trump earlier this month amid significant controversy over her immigration enforcement efforts.

Yet Democrats were not united. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), who is serving his first term in the U.S. Congress, voted in favor of the nomination, giving Mullin eight votes of support versus seven against.

The lopsided roll call for Mullin contrasted with that of Noem, a former governor of South Dakota who won a committee vote of 13-2 back in January 2025. Gallego and Blumenthal cast the “Nay” votes at the time.

Noem even earned some Democratic support — including from Peters — when she was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 59 to 34. Many lawmakers have come to regret the vote in light of the deaths of Good and Pretti as part of an immigration crackdown that ensnared Native people in Arizona, Minnesota and other states despite them being U.S. citizens.

“Our needs are compounded by recent concerns our people have involving misidentification by Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” President Buu Nygren of the Navajo Nation said in written testimony to the House Committee on Appropriations this week.

At least one Navajo citizen was detained by ICE, an incident that Buu said occurred in Arizona in January despite Peter Yazzie presenting his Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) and birth certificate to federal agents.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe reported that at least four of its citizens were detained by ICE in Minnesota in January as well. But President Frank Star Comes Out, who also was on Capitol Hill this week with dozens of Indian Country leaders to testify on fiscal year 2027 appropriations, said DHS refused to provide information unless a restrictive agreement was signed.

Both Nygren and Star Comes Out asked Congress to for assistance in issuing identification cards to their citizens. They each requested $5 million, with the Navajo Nation being one of the two largest tribes in the U.S. and the Oglala Sioux Tribe living on a reservation that is roughly the size of Connecticut.

“We have treaty rights, we have treaty obligations,” Star Comes Out said on Tuesday morning. “Well, when funding gets involved, we tend to forget treaty obligations.”

“And that needs to change,” Star Comes Out testified.

Mullin was not asked about the detention of tribal citizens by ICE at the confirmation hearing on Wednesday. He also was not asked for his views on consultation with tribes on a government-to-government basis, as required by treaties, executive orders, court decisions and other law and policy.

Mullin also did not mention his Cherokee background in his written testimony or his opening statement. He instead referred to his family, which includes six children, as his “tribe.”

DHS is currently in a partial shutdown as Republicans, Democrats and the White House have failed to come an agreement about potential immigration reforms. Fiscal year 2026 appropriations for ICE and other agencies lapsed on February 14.

An appropriations bill pending in Congress calls on DHS to “consult and coordinate with tribal governments” — including on training to ensure ICE agents and other federal employees are able to deal with tribal identification documents.

“At a moment when the Department of Homeland Security is facing a real crisis of accountability, America needs steady, responsible leadership,” said Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico), who serves on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs with Mullin.

“The Republican Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said that Senator Mullin would set ‘a terrible example’ for ICE and Border Patrol agents. This is a stark warning for an already out-of-control department,” added Luján, who said he will vote against Mullin’s nomination when it comes to the Senate floor.

A vote on Mullin to be Secretary of Homeland Security is expected as soon as next week. Once he steps down, the Oklahoma governor is set to appoint an interim replacement who will serve in the Senate for the rest of the year.

Whoever is picked as the interim replacement is not allowed to run for the permanent seat, according to Oklahoma law. Speculation has included R. Trent Shores, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation who served as U.S. Attorney during the first Trump administration, as a potential appointee.

Oklahoma law calls for a special election to be held this year, so voters will go to the polls on November 3 following Republican and Democratic primaries in June. The winner will begin serving in January 2027, at the start of the next session of Congress.

Mullin is currently the only enrolled tribal citizen in the Senate, having won election in November 2022. Previously, he served five terms in the House of Representatives.

Oklahoma is home to 39 federally recognized tribes — including the Cherokee Nation, whose membership ranks as one of the two largest in the United States. Following a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020, about 40 percent of the state is considered to be part of a reservation.

About 14.2 percent of the population in Oklahoma identifies as American Indian alone, the largest such percentage in the lower 48 states.

Apart from Mullin, Oklahoma’s Congressional delegation includes Rep. Tom Cole, a Republican and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and Josh Brecheen, a Republican and citizen of the Choctaw Nation.

Should Mullin be confirmed, he would be the second Native person to serve in a presidential cabinet. The first was Deb Haaland, a citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna who led the Department of the Interior during the administration of then-president Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Nomination of the Honorable Markwayne Mullin to be Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (March 18, 2026)
Business Meeting: Nomination of the Honorable Markwayne Mullin to be Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (March 19, 2026)